Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: streetbikedepot on May 31, 2012, 11:25:35 AM
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We've been runnning this table for 2 years in a production shop with no issue until now. In the middle of a job the other day the G540 faulted, we quickly diagnosed it to the A drive (slaved to Y) in the G540 (it was noticably burned and we thought it shorted from metal dust since the controller was REAL dirty inside). I removed the A drive from the G540 and it came back to life and we limped along driving the gantry from one side. I bought I new G540 (cheaper to buy one and get extra parts than to buy a new 250 driver) and we installed it today. It quickly went to fault again. We swapped all the cables and ran all the steppers on other drives to eliminate a cable or stepper problem with no change we desided to swap drives around in the G540 to see if the issue followed the A driver but it didnt.
I said all that to say this.....the problem has to be within Mach 3. If I disable the slave drive we don't get a fault and if I enable it and leave the stepper unplugged still no fault but once I plug in the A its fine until I try to jog the table then it instantly faults and it will do this on every combination of cable, stepper and driver.
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On slaved units I have seen mach3 currupt the XML and cause the Slave drive to run backwards even through the config SAID it was correct.
Try reloading the original backup XML. NOT the backups that MAch3 does.
NOT a good idea to run a drive WITHOUT the motor wired up could cause a drive failure internally.
(;-) TP
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Good idea but no dice.
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HUM, I do not know of any way that MACH3 could cause a FAULT on a stepper drive. All it can do is send OUT the pulses for the steps(;-).
It can stall the drives but that is about it.
Just a thought, (;-) TP
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It is possible that I have a bad Parallel Port or cable
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well.....its not the parallel port cable. We also went back to the old G540 with a new G250 driver installed and its still the same. I am able to leave the A stepper hooked up without a fault light if I disable the slave axis. As soon as I enable the slave to the Y and jog the table it faults.
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I remapped the pins and the problem follows the pins (8 & 9)
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Have you tried removing the steppermotor from the unit and leave it hooked to the drive then see if anything changes.
(;-) TP
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MIGHT be time to give Gecko a call (;-)
(;-) TP
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I remapped the pins and the problem follows the pins (8 & 9)
Wouldn't that suggest it's the PP? Those pesky little output trannies probably got burned when the old A drive let the magic smoke out.
Ian
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Well my thinking is the rest of the port obviously works as the rest of the machine works ok (xyz) and he moved the pins over to new pins and it still did not work so the port would seem ok.
NOW not knowing what the Fault light is actually meaning I would consult with Gecko as to the meaning of the fault. What can create the fault senario.
(;-) TP
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We're starting to lose production time now......I put a new motherboard and expansion card in and new G540.....still faults on pins 8 and 9. We even remapped the keys incase there was a problem with the keyboard arrows and nothing changed. Swapped around all the cables and all the steppers and swapped the port cable with the THC and still the Gecko faults.
I still think its in Mach3 or the XML file......any one have any ideas?
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Create a new .xml from scratch
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OK lets recap what exactly does it do and exactly what do you mean by it faults. does the drive falut does Mach3 fault any error messages??
(;-) TP
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Did you ever solve this problem?
Sounds like I have the same, or very similar issue
Drew